


Paperweighted

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: #Eridan is british, #Karkat is an emo loser, #Terezi is mostly blind, #angst, #everyone sucks and does shitty thigns, #fluff, #highschool Au, #humanstuck, #nepeta is autistic, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-22
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-03-31 18:49:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3988843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eridan Ampora,  after five years of boarding school in the U.K, returns to Massachusetts for the rest of High School to live with his brother. Expecting to rekindle a childhood friendship, he is disappointed to have lost the spark between him and his long time best friend and crush. Instead, he stumbles into an unlikely romance with an old rival.</p><p>Karkat Vantas has lost the best thing that has ever happened to him as soon as he found it. Lately, things have been pretty rough all around.</p><p>Kanaya struggles with her feelings about a certain spiderbitch who has never been very good to her or anyone else. It can only go downhill from here.</p><p>Junior year is gonna be one hell of a ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Communications and Lunch Invitations

 

    The oldies station softly buzzed from Cronus’ old car radio, warped by the bad signal, but still coming through. It sounded like Elvis, but who knows? Eridan never could really distinguish that garbage, all those guys voices sounded the same.

    He watched the streets swishing by, as if being wiped from the crank window of his brothers vintage Kustom, onto the road behind them in a puddle. The first day of his junior year was stamped with a faded crescent moon, mostly melted away by the sun on the dripping blue canvas of the sky. It had been quite a very long time since he had breathed the wonderful salty air of Salem, Massachusetts. That was one of the few welcoming aspects of returning home.  

    What was not a welcoming aspect was this disgusting music and the suffocating stench of cigarette smoke that seemed to plague the vinyl interior of the car. What his father was thinking, sending his asthmatic son home to live with an older brother, who practically bathed in all kinds of harmful gases, he did not know. And then there was also the fact that everyone he had known when he was a kid probably hated him now. There were some who almost certainly hated him.

 

    His childhood had been spent beachside, in a lovely house right on the water, owned by his Poppa, who despite being the owner of a multi-million dollar corporation, was a fisherman in his heart. He had lived there until about the fifth grade. His dear Poppa had passed that June, and so, Cronus (remarkably having been accepted into college) stayed home to focus on his studies, and Eridan was pulled along to London where his Father lived as the heir of the company. When the next school year began, he was sent to boarding school in a coastal resort town down south called Bournesmouth to Merton Russell-Cotes School for Gifted Youth. Now, when he finally stopped being the weird new kid. Now, when he finally became cool and popular and had some friends. Now, his Father realized just how much he missed home and sent him back to his doom.

 

   He sulked, focusing on the slowly approaching Highschool, more like a prison, a concrete box on a slab of meticulously trimmed grass, than a school, by the way it was looking. 

    One of the only small things he was looking forward to about being back was the possibility of seeing Feferi again, but that was unlikely to happen. She was fairly wealthy, and he wouldn't think her mother would send her to Public School. Then again, he was fairly wealthy too... Nevertheless, it was a prospect he had been using to propel him forward, so he had to keep it alive. If not at school, he would bump into her someplace else, and everything would be alright...She made everything alright.

    Cronus rolled up to the drop off circle, making him feel like an Elementary schooler again, but it was either this or the public bus, and like hell he wanted to deal with that on top of everything else.

 

“Well, this is it, kid.” The back of a heavily greased head of hair piped up, turning down the volume on the radio.

 

“Yeah.” Eridan grumbled, his eyes combing blankly through the ant-like masses of zitty teenagers clumped up outside the building.

“Listen, Cat, you’ve got this shit made in the shade. I’m feeling you must be nervous and all, but cool it, aight?” He blabbered on, referencing some scene from “The Outsiders” or something. The hipster kid ignored him, and reached for the door handle, pulling and stepping out.

 

“Seeya Cro.” He muttered behind him, and with that, the car rumbled away, a cloud of exhaust pluming out of its rear. He wondered where Cronus went that he didn’t leave a trail of noxious fumes in his wake.

 

    The young man adjusted his glasses and shrugged his messenger bag back onto his shoulder, then began to make his way through the crowd.

 

     He looked up, examining the building and its many windows. On its side was a large painting of the school’s mascot, a white, clown looking thing with a nondescript smiling face. It seemed a little intense for a mascot, but Happy the Harlequin was the school’s most beloved aspect of appeal. The school itself looked modern, as it had only been built about four years ago, which he read on the school website.

 

     Fate is funny this way, that perhaps just the person you most hoped to see will be the person you happen to bump into. Maybe Eridan was tired and aloof, or maybe she was a klutz, or maybe he was too focused on his own worries when he bumped right into Feferi Peixes.

 

“Oh, god! I’m SO sorry but you came out of nowhere!” She said, sneering.

 

     It didn’t sound like her, it didn’t look like he remembered her, but it had to be. Wavy, sunsoaked brown hair rippled down to her waist in waves, and big blue eyes stared up at him. Er, more like, glared. Those freckles he knew so well, a slightly larger one beside her left eye, followed by a colony of others along her nose and under her eyes. She wore little gold barrettes on either side of her head, her hair parted down the middle, and a long white skirt with a light pink blouse.

 

“Fef..?” He found himself stuttering out.

 

“That’s me.” She huffed.

 

A realization seemed to dawn on her, suddenly, and her eyes widened.

 

“Eridan??”

 

    He grinned in response. Finally, a breakthrough. It would have been super embarrassing if it hadn’t been her. She threw her bangle-braceleted arms around him, squealing with joy. He felt his face heat, huh, where was that coming from.

 

“You never told me you were coming back!” She exclaimed with excitement. “It’s been so WEIRD without you. I know that sounds dumb, since you’ve been gone so long, but it’s been SO weird. I made some friends though, they’re really cool. You should sit with us at lunch.”

 

“Uh...yeah, sure. And sorry ‘bout not tellin’ you an’ all. Your phone number changed.”

 

“Oh right! Sorry! My Aunt Gloria went on business to the Carribean with her fiance to do some research on the sea life a couple years ago, we were still in middle school. So I had to move out of the boathouse and back home with Mother. My Aunt still owns it and everything, I just can’t live there. I miss it a lot.” She babbled.

 

     As kids, Feferi had lived on a boathouse not far from Eridans home. She used to come down to his section of the beach everyday and climb the tree there, because she said it had the best view of the entire beach. She liked to look out with her cheap little pink binoculars and write about what she saw. He never imagined her leaving.

 

Now she was writing something on a sticky note she pulled out of her bag, some numbers. She handed them to him.

 

“It’s my new phone number,” she grinned brightly. “So you can call me now, okay? But listen, I gotta go drop off my swim stuff. I’ll see you later.”

 

He now noticed a gym bag at her side.

 

“Right..” he said, gesturing at her bag, but before he could finish, she was gone.

 

“Goodbye.”

 

And with that, he shoved the numbers in his pocket and carried on.

 

 

* * *

 

 

    On this morning, Karkat Vantas began with his anti-depressants and a headache, as usual. The sky was a pale blue blanket featuring a blurred out sliver of the moon, a bit like a stain that couldn’t quite be erased. Across his back was a very lightweight backpack, filled with only the necessities. A notebook and two pencil stubs, a folder, and a battered old copy of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” that despite having been read over and over, would have to be read once more at the slow pace of a Highschool English classroom.

 

   He was also late, having missed his bus due to a very long lecture from his brother on the importance of starting a day with a healthy breakfast and how hunger leads to a lower brain activity and did he want to be failing a class his brother was student teaching, which Kankri Vantas so generously provided his own answer to, that no he did not. The discussion, which was mostly one sided, lasted for a whole ten minutes. So now, with begrudgingly eaten eggs and toast sitting in his stomach, he strolled past his streets decrepit homes at a leisurely pace. What, really, did he have to lose?

 

   “Karkat, I hope you’re not blaming me for this,” his older brother began, coming up from behind him, lugging a backpack and two canvas bags of books and schoolwork and lesson plans, “since it is entirely your fault for not eating this morning that we are late in the first place.”

 

He grunted, best to not egg him on with any other commentary.

 

   “I for one, and pardon me, think it is very inconsiderate of you to cause me to be late to my first day of student teaching, not that I in any way do not wish for you to have a good start to your school year, of course I do, but it seems that you do not have any desire to be successful at this point. This, of course, I disapprove of, but I don’t believe there’s really anything I can do about your own choice to be careless when it comes to your education. But to prevent me from making a good first impression on the rest of the faculty is very childish of you, and especially to treat me with such hostility when I have done nothing wrong is a great insult, and I hope that you can come to your senses and apologize for how you have been behaving lately so that we can restore our brotherly bond. I hate to have to deal with you like th-”

 

“Shut the hell up, Kankri. Leave me alone.” There he went, his bad temper getting the best of him again.

 

    “Listen, my brother, I understand that you have been going through some tough things lately and I respect that you need to be treated accordingly because depression of your level is very rough on you mentally, but there is no reason to be using foul language. I will remind you that while father certainly has a...colorful way of speaking, while I am in charge of you and he is away I must insist that you do not speak to me or in my presence this way. And once again, I am pressing you, please, I am sure that if you just had a little faith and let the Lord guide you to happiness, you would be far more content with your being, and would learn a little respect for your peers and an appreciation of all the good things our God has given us.” He rambled. This was typical, but on this day it was particularly annoying.

 

    That summer had been simultaneously the best and worst one of his life. Terezi Pyrope had been his best friend since about the third grade, when she moved to Massachusetts from Texas. She had, as a small child, known Dave Strider, and was immediately integrated into his friend group when she wound up at the same school as them, which meant that she met Karkat, and quickly discovered how annoyed he was by her many ridiculous nicknames for him. She was legally blind, but could still see partially out of her eyes, which meant she could do schoolwork with glasses that super-magnified letters, and that she didn’t need a cane to make her way around most of the time. She liked dragons and was obsessed with the color red and comics. Anything that had to do with detectives, you could rest assured she had heard about. Her favorite was Daredevil, for obvious reasons. She played all kinds of video games, but it was mainly pokemon and Kingdom Hearts at the time. She also played tabletop Dungeons and Dragons. She was a huge nerd.

    It was in the seventh grade that he fell for her, and hard. He couldn’t quite pin the turning point, but he tended to say it was around the time of their first school social. She wore a fluttery turquoise dress that somehow still matched with her red hair, which she maneuvered into soft curls for the occasion. She had just gotten her braces off, too. That night, when she noticed he wasn’t dancing or sitting with anyone, she sat next to him and held his hand for a long time.

But that Summer, right after they left Sophomore year for good, that was when it finally all came together.

Allow me to set the scene for you.

 

It is a brisk mid-June day, Terezi texts Karkat that she is riding the bus to the coffee shop, and to meet her there.

 

He walks, since he lives in the area and it is nice outside, he only needs a jacket.

 

He enters the store, finding Terezi over in the aisles where the sweets are.

 

There is both good news and bad news, she informs him.

 

The Bad News: She is moving back to Texas in August.Her mother is getting remarried to her father. She is unsure of when she can see him again after that. She will miss him.

 

The Good News: She leans in and whispers that she loves him. They kiss for the first time.

 

   The rest of Summer was an experience beyond description. Finally, getting to be with her. Finally, getting it all off his chest, but when it was over, it came crashing down even harder. And yeah, maybe it was a little juvenile and melodramatic to get depressed because a girl left your life after bringing so much into it. He thought often, during this time, that it would have hurt less if he hadn’t known what it was like to be in mutual love, that if she left him as a friend, he would have been okay. But every waking moment now, his mind was on her. Yeah, she promised they would still use pesterchum and they would Facetime and Skype when they could, but she still hadn’t contacted him. It had been at least a week.

 

Kankri pretending that he understood only made everything worse.

 

* * *

 

 

 

   Eridan’s homeroom was on the second floor of the school building, which was also where his locker was, so it wasn’t too much trouble. He ended up being neighbors with a girl whose entire face was taken up by large, wire framed glasses. Her hair was long and black, and she looked Korean. It was also noteworthy that she had several multi-colored ribbons tied around her fingers, she must have had them there to remind her to do something, but she had so many. He shrugged it off, she was probably just really forgetful. Inside her locker, she had taped many pictures of her and her smiling friends; a shorter girl with dark makeup and bleach blonde hair cut in a cute bob, a boy with brown swoopy hair and buck teeth, and the tallest of them with white hair and pale skin. He had just the traces of a smile and shades dark enough to obscure his eyes. He had his arm around the goth looking girl. They could have been related, but he didn’t bother to ask. He would seem like a complete creep if she thought he had been carefully examining the photos in her locker.

 

   He set up a few simple things in his locker. A box with stain remover, a comb, dental floss, and other daily maintenance things, a mirror that stuck with a magnet to his locker door, a dry erase planner underneath it, and a collapsable wire rack, on which he placed most of his school supplies for the day.

 

He headed to homeroom, and made it in the classroom just before the bell rang, sitting down at the last seat closest to the front.

 

   Across the aisle to his right sat a dark skinned kid who was remarkably tall, but pretty lanky, with his feet up on the desk. It seemed that every significantly fleshy   portion of his face was pierced. His hair was wayward and curly and long, and mostly hid his eyes, which were bloodshot and dead. He was stoned out of his mind. There was an empty seat next to him.

 

 _Figures._ He thought to himself.

 

   Their teacher, a tall lady in heels with pretty eyes and strangely suitable greying hair, began to call roll. The stoner, he found, was called Gamzee Makara, and he had a low, grinding voice. He talked loosely, but with confidence in every word. When the attendance was finished, they were dismissed to their own devices, and Ms. White sat down to her desk to twiddle with a ring on her finger.

 

   Someone burst through the door, breathing heavily, and Eridan gave a start, looking up from his copy of The Goblet of Fire. The kid carried nothing, but was wearing a beanie over his dark hair and a grey sweater.

 

“Karkat Vantas, sorry i’m late. I uh, missed the bus.” He muttered to the teacher, who nodded and duly responded with: “Try not to make a habit of it, Mr. Vantas.”

 

He sighed and plunked down next to Gamzee Makara the Stoner, and Eridan raised an eyebrow.

 

“Hey Kar.” He said, smirking.

 

“Shit. When did you decide to roll back into town without actually fucking notifying anyone so we could throw you a proper welcoming party?” He said sarcastically, his face remaining blank. “Hey Ampora.” He added, as if an afterthought.

 

“When did you go completely emo? You look like a cloud of 2005 breakup songs.” He retorted.

 

Gamzee spoke up from beside him. “Woah now, purple brother, that’s a sensitive topic.”

 

    Karkat rolled his eyes. “This is Gamzee. Gamzee, this is Eridan.” He said, giving the cliche motion of introduction. “Now that we’re all the best of bros together in one big bro circle, and we’ve traded broship bracelets and shit, I should inform you, Ampora, that I have been dressing like this since the eighth grade. And Gamzee, believe it or not, saying that actually made me feel worse. So thank you.”

 

“Aw..you’re welcome Karbro. Anything to help a brother out.”

 

“You are stoned out of your mind.”

 

“Shit, you want some? I’m on cloud nine, man, this is the best yet. Fucking miracles.” He said, still lazily staring into the heavens, his mouth agape.

 

“Yes, he’s always like this.” Karkat said, turning to Eridan. He then looked back at Gamzee, saying. “Why the hell would you come to school stoned on the first day?”

 

“Well I think you all up and answered your own question just now, motherfucker. But I’ll try to cool it tomorrow if it makes you happy.”

 

    Eridan quietly watched this all go down, only vaguely aware that they were being watched by someone across the room.

 

“So, Ampora, you want to sit with a giant clusterfuck at lunch today? Consider this a formal invitation to our lunch crusade, traveling far and wide for a little bit of shittily prepared sustenance day after day, because our asses are broke.” He suggested with dramatic flair and his personal brand of cynical wittiness.

 

    He realized he was being spoken to after a couple seconds of awkward silence amongst their group.

 

“Oh, uh, no thanks. Fef invited me to sit with her.” He said.

 

    Karkat must have recognized the look in his eyes, because he immediately started to glare with exasperation at him.

 

“After all these years you still like her, really?”

 

“Kar no, it’s not just likin’ her...it’s more like...an obsession.” He explained, chewing his lip with embarrassment.

 

“Right..” He replied. “That definitely sounds a lot less creepy. Eridan, you don’t even know who she is anymore. Sit with her if you want, but don’t expect that she’s ever going to feel the same way. You have less of a chance now than you did when you were eight.”

 

    Eridan blinked.

 

“What do you mean, I don’t know who she is?”

 

   Karkat plugged in one earbud. “I’m just saying that we’ve all changed a lot. She’s at the top of the ladder here, everyone likes her. You’re gonna have a lot of trouble getting up to the standard of cool enough for her. Not that she thinks that, I mean socially, y’know?” He let out another sigh. “It’s like in ‘She’s All That,” okay..”

 

   The shorter kid proceeded to go on a long tangent, wandering off so far from the original conversation that it became too confusing for the young Ampora to put any of his focus on. Maybe it would make sense if he had seen the movie, but everything he was saying just sounded like rubbish.

 

   He shifted his attention to the figure that he could distantly feel watching them from her seat, a petite girl who looked like she couldn’t even be a freshman with thin blonde hair and a light blue knit hat with attached cat ears. She wore a green army jacket and had a soft face with warm eyes, which were green, and seemed very acute to Karkat’s every move.

 

   Her gaze moved very suddenly, almost like a wild animal stalking its prey, in Eridan’s direction, and she suddenly brightened, smiling to show a small set of teeth with very sharp canines.

 

“Hi there!” She said in a squeaky sort of voice that made him question her age even more. “I haven’t seen you before, I'm Nepeta!"

 

   Karkat’s eyes bulged and he made an involuntary sound as he hurried to plug the other earbud in and turn away. Nepeta pouted with disappointment.

 

“Eri-" He started to introduce himself.

 

"Oh, I know, I heard Karkitty say it! You're Eridan Ampurra." She pronounced his name with a cat-like rumble that sounded slightly French.

 

   He quirked an eyebrow. “Uh, what?”

 

“Nothing! Just a cat pun thing I like to do! It helps me to remember new people, but usually they just stick forever and ever. Like with Karkitty. I have Mild Asperger’s Syndrome, and if I give you a different name in my head, it’s easier for me to remember you!” She explained.

 

_She's so forward and confident, but it's cute..?_

 

 

“Oh yeah, sure.” He glanced back behind him, then turned around to face her again. “Do you know what happened to Kar?”

 

“ Uh, like long term or short term because a lot of things have been happening to him lately and if I don’t know which one I might tell you the wrong thing!”

 

“Short term.”

 

“He just doesn’t like me very much, I try not to talk to him because I realized how he was acting when I did, but he’s still not very interested in anything having to do with me.” She frowned in his direction again.

 

“You were kinda starin’ at him…” The boy with the purple hair said. Did she not know?

 

   Nepeta tilted her head to one side.

 

“But he didn’t say not to look at him.” She reasoned.

 

    Now Eridan sighed.

 

“Yeah, but-”

 

   Just as he began, though, the bell rang for the next period.

 

“Sorry about that, gotta go to class. Bye Eridan Ampurra!” She called, waving goodbye and heading out the door.

 

   Karkat gently shoved him, bidding him farewell with a creative “later, limpdick,” and left him there, Gamzee in tow.

 

 _Well that went well._ He thought, pleasantly smiling as he exited the classroom.

 

* * *

 

 

   On the typical day, especially a first one, Kanaya was very studious. Her parents would probably kill her if she wasn’t, but today, actual school was the last thing on her mind.

 

  Another paper ball hit the back of Vriska’s chair and fell to the floor with a quiet plop. _Her earbuds must be in._ Kanaya thought. _This is all the information we need for the beginning of the year, what is she thinking?_

 

   In her hand at the ready was a primly folded note to the girl with dyed hair. She could have just poked her and given it to her if she was close enough, but alas, this particular teacher was notorious for placing his students so far apart, they could be on separate continents and he would still tell them to “scooch just a little farther.” He claimed it helped with classroom immersion, but all it seemed to really be helping with was making it way harder for her to see the board. Her glasses were extremely unbecoming on her, and she was waiting to get new contacts since she had lost the old ones. This whole situation was very inconvenient in all its aspects.

 

   The Serket hadn’t spoken to her since that Summer, when Vriska had requested of her to make a special dress, which of course, Kanaya had no problem doing, until she found out what it had been designed for. In this very dress, she attended a house party, that, according to her, “Allllllll the cool people were at. Allllllll of them.” What she had not known about was that a certain Tavros Nitram had been invited to this party, and that the very same Tavros Nitram had been persuaded to go upstairs with her, and had basically had his inconfidence taken advantage of. Need it also be mentioned, that the SAME Tavros Nitram had been hurt by her before AGAIN and AGAIN.

 

   There was no need to get worked up about it all over again. It was simply that seeing a dress one has manufactured and has put all her talent and time into specifically to please a girl one likes very much being used to seduce an awkward, drunk boy who cannot stand up for himself for anything in a blurry photo of them making out grossly all over Facebook is an unnerving experience. So much that one may feel tempted, and act on said temptation, to behave in a very rash and uncouth manner towards this girl through IM.

 

   Meaning, of course, that Kanaya had absolutely obliterated that huge bitch on Pesterchum, and hadn’t been approached by her in a very long time as a result.

 

   Eventually, however, she had come to her senses and geared up to apologize, drafting a very careful note, in hopes of rekindling their friendship on the brink of romance, and this was what she had been trying to give to Vriska, and had been failing at.

 

   If she couldn’t reach her before the end of the period, she could surely just give it to her at lunch, but she wanted it to be as private as possible. Apparently in a school setting, that meant creating a small disruption and a slightly more disruptive pile of litter on the tile floor. And then there was also the possibility that she wouldn’t even sit with her at Feferi’s table, as a way to, again, avoid her.

 

   Yes, it had dawned on her that that was what she was doing now as well, but the thought of that made her feel hopeless, and truthfully, she didn’t really have a desire to listen to a long lecture about school rules she had already read and memorized for an entire period. This was a lot more thrilling. Highschool romance was a rush.

 

   She took aim once more, this was the last post it note she had. She waited until Mr. Droogs head turned to write something on the board and took her chance. She threw it swiftly.

_Bulls eye._

   The girl turned around, looking agitated, and Kanaya simply handed her the note. _Why would she not look irritated? It'll be totally okay once she reads it._

 

   Vriska grabbed it from her and turned back around. Good, now the agony was off of “how do I talk to her?” and onto “what will she say?”

 

   The rest of class went by very slowly, like Father Time himself was personally making everything harder for her, specifically. The two of them did not communicate by any means whatsoever within that time frame. When the bell finally rang and they were dismissed, Kanaya cleared her throat to speak, but Vriska had already left, throwing the unopened note in the trash on her way.

 

 _Well_ , she thought. _I hadn’t considered that possibility._

 

 

 

 


	2. Hearteyes and Fiveguys

_The first time._

 

   He got barely a glimpse. To get a feel of their new school assigned cameras in his Photography class, they took photos, uploaded them to the computers, and edited them. Near the end of class, their teacher picked a few students to print their pieces. They would be tacked to her bulletin board for every class to see for the rest of the semester. Eridans' was a black and white photo of a piece of loose leaf that he had edited to look like words were falling off of. He was one of the people she picked.

   There were some technical difficulties with the printer, which was big and confusing and made to print photos. In her frustration, the teacher made a call to the office, and a student from the tech club was sent down to help. He was tallish, lanky, and had a look about him like he survived on mountain dew and ramen. The boy was wearing rounded glasses and chuck taylors, one black and one white. His hair was dirty blonde and scruffy, and not in the fashionable way. In the “rolled out of bed and hadn’t even bothered to brush it” way. He took a couple minutes on the printer, and when he finished his work he left.

 

And it probably wasn’t him...

 

_The second time._

 

  Eridan overheard a conversation between the boy and a curvy girl with dark skin and jet black hair, who wore a long skirt and carried her books in a hug to her chest. She was having an animated discussion with him about Indiana Jones 5 rumors. He seemed to be closely paying attention, but not at all an active part of the conversation. He spoke only once that Eridan heard, to make some joke about Chris Pratt. There was a distinct lisp there, although he sounded like he was trying to control it. The curvy girl giggled.

 

“Come on, Sollux, I’m trying to have a serious, businesslike discussion here.” She laughed, nudging him playfully.

 

It couldn’t be…

 

_The third time._

 

He walked into AP Trig with a pile of someone else’s things on his desk and pushed his stuff beside it.  They would probably come get it. Unfortunately, the extra books fell to the floor with a thud, making everyone in the room jump. Sollux rushed over from putting his calculator away to pick them up.

 

“Thank _ **S**_ for pu _ **SH**_ ing my book _ **S**_ over, athhat.” He lisped, spitting the insult all over him.

 

“Say it, don’t spray it.” Eridan advised. “It was a fuckin’ accident.”

 

He threw a glare over his shoulder at him as he left the classroom.

 

 

_It had to be…_

* * *

 

   Doing his best to tolerate the fast current of hungry students, Eridan opened his locker to get his wallet for Lunch. His locker neighbor walked up to hers as well, putting in the combination and grabbing a plastic lunch box featuring some animated childrens cartoon characters that looked like squid off of the shelf. This was as good an opportunity as any to get some information.

 

“Hey, do you know if a Sollux Captor goes here?” He queried in her direction. He didn’t know her name. Hopefully,she would realize he was talking to her.

 

“Yeah, he’s in my friend Rose’s Computer class.” She smiled. “ Why, who’s asking?”

 

“Eridan Ampora. And that’s none of your concern.” He asserted, smirking to show he was joking.

 

“My name’s Jade. I hope everything goes well for you then, though.”

 

“Okay, thanks for helping me out.”

 

“Any time! Well, goodbye!” She called as she walked down the hallway to the cafeteria.

 

He waved.

So her name was Jade.

 

 

* * *

 

 

   John’s car was the shittiest piece of junk on Earth, as it was so affectionately christened by Karkat, who constantly cursed at any minor defect he came across on almost every occasion he rode in it. It wasn’t _really_ that big of a deal that the seatbelts were always stuck, or that one of the handles had fallen off the door so you always had to get into the back seat on the left. He was going to keep it until it was a legal offense for him to have it in the streets, and that day was not today, goddammit.

 

“You alwayth get thotgun, kk. It’th unfair, you look ten yearth old, you’re tho thort. We’re gonna get pulled over.” Sollux teased from behind him, only to be responded to with a slowly rising middle finger.

 

Karkat reached over to buckle the seatbelt, tugging and tugging for it to pull away, grinding his teeth, his rage increasing rapidly.

 

“Karkat, don’t hurt yourself.” John chimed in with the teasing. He wasn’t particularly mean spirited, but messing with friends was always fun once in a while.

 

“Your car is the shittiest piece of junk on Earth.” He argued blandly.

 

Yes, especially when they said rude things about your baby. Especially then.

 

“Casey is the best car in the entire world and you know it. Don’t take out your anger with the world on my sweet baby.” John recited proudly, pulling out of the student parking lot and making a beeline for Five Guys, that is, if one can make a beeline while driving...god, what did that word even fucking mean?

 

   Karkat let out one last grunt and finally freed the seatbelt, buckling it with satisfaction in front of him.

 

“Yeah, Karbro, have some motherfuckin’ chill, y’know? Relax, you’ve been all up and bitchtits tense today. Sit back and let the clown messiah’s take the wheel, my angry brother.” Gamzee breathed, sipping Faygo distractedly as Sollux stared at him, speechless.

 

“Hold on, shut up for a second, you named your car?” He questioned, looking with what was somehow a mix of disgust and anger at the driver.

 

“Yeah..why not?”

 

“Isn’t your little cousin named Casey?”

 

“So? I just like the name!!” 

 

“Jethuth, John.” Sollux interjected. “You have more cousinth than Karkat, whatth up with that?”

 

“Don’t be racist.” Said Karkat, for once not sounding offended at all.

 

“I only have three cousins.”

 

“Yeah, and I have lots of cousins, I just don’t talk about them because they’re all assholes.” Karkat added on.

 

“See,” Gamzee mumbled distantly. “That’s the kind of negativity we’ve all been talking about here, man. You need to cool down and appreciate all the fuckin miracles this world has to offer.”

 

“Oh my fucking God, that reminds me. Kankri is student teaching. I have his class next, wait, stop the car, let me get out and you can run me over, and make sure you do it a couple times. I want to make sure I stay dead.”

 

Gamzee reached over, patting his shoulder, and Karkat finally started to breathe slowly again, calming down.

“Gueth who I Saw.” Sollux intervened again. “ED.”

 

“Oh no, not E. D!” the calmed angry kid mocked. “Who the fuck is ‘e.d’ shittrain, not everyone speaks in code.”

 

Sollux rolled his eyes. “Eridan, I mean. From Elementary.”

 

“That motherfucker was sick, yo. Have you seen his bitchin ass hair? Crazy, bro.” Gamzee commented, leaning back into his seat.

 

“We talked to him in homeroom.” Karkat explained. “What about him?”

 

“He’s an asshole.”

 

   John pulled into the five guys, unbuckling and looking in the rear view mirror at Sollux.

 

“Are you talking about that kid in Trig who dropped your books, ‘cause he was telling the truth about it being an accident, you know. I saw him, he was just putting his books on the desk.”

 

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t have anything to do with it. You know what elthe? He wath totally staring at AA too. What a freak.” He scoffed.

 

  They all got out of the car, trudging up to the building and walking inside, entering the line.

 

 

“You gotta let go of it, Captor, it’s been five entire years." Karkat counseled, continuing the conversation that had been briefly forgotten when its participants were met with the promise of food. "This isn’t even rational hate anymore, it’s petty and annoying. If you asked me I’d say you had a little mancrush on him.”

 

“You know what, thut up kk. He did some methed up thtuff to me, and now I have to remember all the crap I had to deal with about him every thingle day. You wouldn’t be too exthited if thome douthe from your patht thowed up thuddenly after being gone for forever and a half yearth.” Sollux blustered.

 

“People change, dude.” John commented, examining the menu.

 

“I don’t care if he’th changed. He’th thtill a huge dick. He made fun of my lithp.”

 

Karkat turned to him. “Sollux, _we_ make fun of your lisp. _You_ make fun of your lisp.”

 

“But he meant it!”

 

“Is this what it’s like to be around me everyday? Because I am so, so fucking sorry.” Karkat said to the group, laughing quietly.

   As far as Sollux was concerned, someone who was as big of an asshole as Eridan Ampora couldn’t ever change. Yeah, maybe he’d matured and he’d gotten a better sense of style and...filled out a little bit to the point where he almost looked attractive.

 

 _What the hell are you thinking?_ Sollux cursed himself mentally. He was not going to let himself think that his childhood classmate had any redeeming qualities.

 

   It wasn’t like he had seriously hurt anyone or anything, it was just that he had always thought he was so much better than everyone else. Generally, yes, he didn’t push people out of trees, putting them in a wheelchair for four years, like some people he could mention, and he didn’t talk too much shit about other people that wasn’t warranted..like some people he could mention, but overall he was a giant douche.

 

   Since preschool he had suffered through never being as good as him. He was always the teachers pet, and he always had to have everything perfect. And when other people were “substandard,” according to the pint seized heir, he tried to give them advice like he had some kind of authority for being rich and good at everything.

 

   He wasn’t even that cool, all through Elementary school having been a complete loser with no friends besides this Feferi girl. _Go figure,_ Sollux thought. But he was so good at acting like what he said mattered. So yeah, a couple times Sollux had doodled little dicks on his artwork or made a tear in his homework, but really, was he to blame for any of that? If Eridan didn’t want people to hate him, he should just stop being such a control freak. It wasn’t that hard. That’s what he did, and look how many friends he’d made by just letting them find out about all his character flaws later.

 

  The next thing he knew, Karkat was snapping his fingers sharply in front of Sollux’s face.

 

“Earth to dipshit, order already.” He urged, returning to a conversation about some terrible doomsday movie with John.

 

   He placed his order,which was always the same thing; a double cheeseburger with, as a rule, only two pickles. He always put two squirts of honey mustard on too, but that came later, since the cooks never got it right. Everything was so much better in pairs, he thought.

 

 _Maybe_ i’m _the control freak._ He mused to himself.

 

  By the time they had gotten their food it was already nearing the end of the lunch period, so they ate in the car after some protest from John and their reassurance that nothing would be spilled, apart from Karkat, who simply insisted that a little ketchup stain couldn’t make his car any more trashy.

 

   The drive back was fairly silent, until Karkat’s phone began to sound an alarm in his pocket, signaling that he was getting a text. This one, he continued to trust, was the angriest of all text tone options, and thus, it was the only one for him. As for his ring tone, well, the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” theme song still held a special place in his heart.

 

Awkwardly shuffling in the seat, he was able to pull out his cellphone and check the text.

 

  After a brief fit of choking in which he probably almost died, Karkat managed to struggle out Terezi’s name, and proceeded to type a response at a rate that Sollux thought could very possibly sprain his thumbs. They pulled back into the school parking, where Karkat immediately swung open the rickety door and hurried back into the building, shouting “Seeya, losers, this is way more important!” as he slowly disappeared.

 

“Ah, young love. It’s beautiful. Motherfuckin’ beautiful.” Gamzee commented while Sollux stared after him in confusion of what actually just happened.

 

John snorted, downing his last fry and then crumpling up his bag.

 

“Okay guys, get out of my car.” He joked.

 

“Yeah, gotta make room for thtrider, right John?”

 

   John scoffed, but if the computer geek wasn’t mistaken, his skin turned just barely pinker.

 

“I hardly even hang out with him anymore, man.” He grumbled. “So shut up, he’s basically dead to me.”

 

“Come on gz, we thould leave John alone to hith Megara from Herculeth thryle love tholiloquy.”

 

“We’re just bros!” John half-heartedly insisted after them as they left the car.

 

  He gathered his stuff and headed off to class.

* * *

 

 

  Feferi ate lunch at a table situated near the very center of the cafeteria, although off to the side enough to be shaded by the trees from the light pouring in through the skylight in the ceiling. Despite this, Eridan slouched, ducking his head as he made his way to the seat, something his never did if he could help it. And in this case, the feeling of being stared at and torn apart by every pair of eyes in their lunch hour made him very uncomfortable. These tables, he discovered, only seated eight people, and were circular, which also meant, and he discovered at the same time, that it was to be considered a pretty huge honor to be allowed to sit there. Karkat had been right about his old friends' popularity.

 

“Hi Eridan!” She greeted, waving. God, it was like she sparkled in the sunlight.

 

  In front of her was a small salad in a tupperware container, a bottle of water, and half a sandwich with what looked like several discolored spreads and sprouts on it. Vegan food, probably. It wouldn’t surprise him, she’d always been quite the animal activist in Elementary, and in fifth grade, a vegetarian.

 

   He sat down across from her, making the quick decision that sitting next to her would be a bit too clingy. Soon after, a girl with pixie cut hair and a white and blue, a little chubby but not overweight, sat next to Feferi. She wore small, ovaline glasses and appeared to be a year older. She must have been close to Fef though, for one reason or another, because of how comfortably they spoke to each other. He also noticed that she looked very similar to a student in his math class, but he couldn’t say whether they were related.

 

  The next person to sit down was a boy, who also looked familiar, but whom he did not know, with chunky headphones and the lightest hair he had ever seen. It was this that made him quickly realize that the new boy had been in the picture in Jade’s locker. Yes, he had identical shades to the boy in the picture. Come to think of it, that was kind of weird, wasn’t it? He must've thought they made him look cooler.

 

 _I guess it must work, if he’s allowed to sit here._ Eridan reasoned with himself. _Or maybe he’s just a friend of Fef's_. He considered this when he remembered that he too was allowed to sit there.

 

   Another girl, who he did happen to know, but only from Grade school, joined them. At least, he thought it was her. Her hair was short, dark, and wispy, and her fringe was held back with a green clip that matched her lipstick very nicely. She gave off an aura of sophistication and style, in a simple, practical kind of way. The girl had always looked Indian to him, but he never knew her well enough to know for sure. She wore an intricate, long red skirt, and a plain black top with long sleeves, and she looked to be very focused on someone across the room when she took her place a seat away from him.

 

Clearly, this was the kind of girl who got right to the point.

 

“Feferi, could this gentleman be Eridan Ampora, from the fifth grade?” She asked as soon as she sat down.

 

  The vegan was snapped out of her conversation with senior girl, blinking and raising an eyebrow expressively. Her eyes brightened as she processed the question.

 

“Oh, yeah! I forgot you two knew each other. Yeah, he just came back from Europe, isn’t that great?” She giggled.

 

_So it is her._

 

   Obviously then, Feferi had no recollection of the last circumstances on which Eridan and Kanaya, had been acquainted.

 

“Hello Eridan.” She said politely, turning toward him.”

 

  He decided to go about this in a civil manner. “Hey Kan.”

 

They remained silent for a while, until Kanaya mercifully stepped forward to break the paralyzing quiet between them.

 

“I realize that on the last occasion we met, my hand became quite familiar with your left cheek in the fashion of a very angry slap.”

 

   Ugh, he could still feel it stinging and leaving an ugly red mark that industrial amounts of concealer and powder would not mask.

 

“A bitchslap.” He bitterly corrected.

 

“Yes. But I understand that, like myself, you have matured since then. For that reason, I don’t think I can expect to see any similar behavior from you anytime soon to that of your youth, so I suggest that we simply ‘move on’ from this issue and behave a little more good naturedly towards one another.” She spouted out, not a hitch in her speech. And then paused.

 

“However, if you do see it fit to do anything of the sort again, I will not hesitate to provide the same response. Can we agree to this?”

 

   He couldn’t say much of the situation, it was so long ago, and frankly, he didn’t like to think about all the stupid things he’d done. But what could be said was simply that Eridan had tried to persuade Feferi to befriend a rumored spirit in the woods behind their school, which everyone had been afraid of. And stupid Sollux Captor had to ruin his brilliant plan to go with her and make up and shit since they had kinda been on the fence with each other for a while anyway by startin’ somethin’ with him. So they had this shovin’ match and Fef sorta got in the middle of it and got pushed accidentally, and Kanaya intervened, slapping him hard across the face. A bitchslap, to be precise. It was stupid, but Eridan could never forgive himself for getting so worked up about the whole thing that Feferi got hurt (even if it wasn’t that bad.)

 

He nodded.

 

“Thanks Kan, for bein’ the bigger person an all just now.”

 

She was never mean to him, in fact, she had been a voice of reason in his life on a couple occasions. And, she had just been a classmate. It was good to forgive.

 

“Of course.” She smiled graciously. “ And now we have to talk about that awful purple streak.” She criticized, grasping at the violet tuft of his brown hair, tousled back with product as she moved to sit next to him.

“Oh hi!” Jade approached the table, sitting on Eridans other side. She opened her lunchbox to reveal a sandwich neatly cut into four small triangles, a bottle of water, and some applesauce. “Are you a friend of Feferi’s too?”

 

“Oh yeah.” He replied. “ We go way back.”

 

“Hey batterwitch,” The sudden communication from the shades kid to another member of their slowly forming circle startled him, as he had been sitting in silence for the past couple minutes. His voice was fairly deep, and drawled as if he was  trying to sound laid back. “Where’s John? I haven’t seen him in ages.”

 

“Dave, I told you to stop callin’ me that. Why don’t you just come over and see him?’ It turned out red glasses girl’s voice harbored a cute southern accent, even though it wasn’t especially obvious.

 

The boy looked at her silently.

 

She sighed. “He went to five guys or something with his friends.”

 

Jade grinned, patting the boy, Dave’s, shoulder comfortingly.

 

“Aw! It’s okay Dave. Someday your prince will come!”

 

He barely smirked. “I hope you realize what you just said to me.”

 

“I know exactly what I said.” Jade gave a proud smile.

 

He tittered, just to humor her sick double entendre, and then slipped his headphones on.

 

Feferi looked around the table, her lip jutting out in a pout.

 

“You're all so lovesick and frumpy.” She observed.

 

 

   She was perceptive too.

 

* * *

 

 

“So today’s the big day.” Dave smirked, walking up next to Karkat, who was slouched and staring intensely at his phones screen. “What’re you smiling about, shouty?”

 

“None of your business.” He huffed, continuing to type, his only notebook in his other hand.

 

“Hey, has John said anything about me lately, mayhaps?”

 

“Yeah, he wants your dick in his ass. So badly.”

 

“You’re joking.” Said Dave, fixing his fringe and feigning shock.

 

“No, why would I joke about something like that?” He responded, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Strider, I don’t think he really wants anything to do with you. You’re kind of a tool.”

 

He laughed. “So that’s why you didn’t invite me on the five guys run?”

 

“Look, it’s his car. Take it up with him if you want to be part of the cool kids club.” He shrugged, and with that, walked into History class.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! Thanks for reading this second chapter and for all your kudos and comments! It really made me excited to publish this chapter, and I'm sorry it was so short. I didn't want to get off not meeting my deadlines first thing. Thanks again and don't forget to comment with your lovely insight! ｡^‿^｡
> 
> -☁soph☁


	3. Bathroom Smoking and Lab Partner Provoking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vriska does Vriska things. I hopelessly try to tie up the first day of school. John and Dave have a weird exchange.

_Yeah, we start School tomorrow. I’m taking a break from unpacking. Where are you?_

  
  


He held the phone beneath his desk, looking up intermittedly only to see his brother, still rattling off ridiculous bullshit at the front of the class like he always did at home. Yes, why would he expect it to be any different here? Thank god he hadn’t gotten to introducing himself yet, or everyone would know they were related. He couldn’t wait.

 

Hiding the phone wasn’t a lot of trouble, but hiding the blush that he knew was expanding over his entire face, suffocating him in all its giggly, fluffy glory, certainly was.

  
  


_School. Kankri’s class. He’s student teaching._ He texted back. Situations like this, he decided, warranted gun emoji’s next to crying emoji’s. And he added some.

 

Mere seconds passed before the blind girl was typing again.

 

_Oh my god, I shouldn’t have left, I need to be there for moral support.  Baby Karkat is too young to be out in the big world all on his own!!!_

 

He rolled his eyes, then looked up at Kankri again, who still, apparently, didn’t suspect anything.

 

 _Do you remember Eridan Ampora?_ He asked, switching the topic so that their conversation couldn’t be cut short.

 

_Yeah, bossy dork with the glasses and the striped pants?_

 

Smiling at her description, he continued.

 

 _He came back to Salem._ He typed.

 

 _Does he still wear the striped pants?_ Terezi messaged.

 

_Dunno, I mean, he wasn’t wearing any today. Doesn’t seem too far fetched though. He’s got this shitty purple streak in his hair now._

 

He was waiting for the blind girl to respond, watching the animated dots wiggle inside their bubble, when Kankri finally did the thing he had been dreading.

 

“Anyhow, we’re getting a bit off topic. My name, is Mr. Vantas, I’ll write that on the board so you won’t forget.”

 

These words called him back to attention, and as his older brother turned to write his name on the blackboard, a couple kids turned to look back at him, grinning with some kind of sick satisfaction at the embarrassment they must have known he was undertaking. He shut off his phone and shoved it into his lap just to be safe.

 

“Yes,” Kankri said, turning back to face the class “If any of you were wondering, Mr. Karkat Vantas is indeed my very own younger brother. I can only hope you will all follow his example, and be attentive, good students this year-”

 

A loud ping from his phone interrupted him, and Karkat’s eyes widened. It was over now.

 

“Oh...Karkat, can you come up here, please?”

 

He winced, dragging himself out of his seat, his phone in hand.

 

“Give it here.” Kankri ordered, motioning with one hand. He gave the phone to him.

 

He was silently dismissed back to his seat, as a few students snickered. Kankri addressed the class once more.

 

“It appears I have made an error. Very well, use this as an example, and don’t let me see any of you with cellphones in my class again. Moving on, classroom policies.. lets see…”

 

Karkat buried his face in his arms.

 

* * *

 

  
  
  


   You wouldn’t think it would even be necessary to cut class on the first day, okay, she wasn’t even _really_ cutting. She had just gotten a bathroom pass by telling her math teacher she was having lady issues. That worked every time, especially with scraggly old guys who clearly had never even seen a tampon in their life. She was sure no one would come looking for her. 

   Right, maybe it was technically cutting class, but she seriously just needed a break. Being the baddest bitch in school was a difficult job, especially when you had to start fresh, convincing everyone all over again after being shut down by _Kanaya Maryam._

 

  She couldn’t say why, but sometimes, that girl could really get under her skin. So much that she had to take half an hour out of her very important education to mull it over and smoke in the girls bathroom. Of course, she knew someone would smell smoke on her later, but she always smelled like smoke anyway. And for that reason, she’d never really liked cigarettes. The first time she’d actually had one she was almost sick, although she’d never admit it. But after a while the feeling sort of grew on her. She could never be addicted, though. She couldn’t even imagine having to poison herself fifteen times a day with that garbage.

 

    Vriska slipped in one earbud, walking into a stall and closing the door after realizing that someone could in fact, walk in, even if they weren’t looking for her. She didn’t necessarily care whether she got in trouble, but she definitely wasnt stupid enough to walk straight into it. Leaning against the wall, she pumped up the volume on her music and let her mind wander.

 

It all started with a teeny, tiny little crush on this kid she had known since Middle School, named Tavros. She was a little out of his league, popular and cool in contrast to some nerdy loser in a wheelchair with a pikachu hat whose DDO character SUCKED BALLS. It would never work, realistically. She had spent a really long time cutting him down, from the sixth grade to that Summer, always on about something. It wasn’t her fault he was a little wimp who could never survive in the real world letting people push him around and junk. She was doing him a favor, toughening him up. It was her way of showing concern, good friends don’t let other friends be total pushovers and get beaten up, right? Good friends teach other friends to be stronger, right?

 

It was a long while of that going fine before some perfect girl who she vaguely remembered from Elementary showed up and started meddling in her business. Little Tavros had some kind of _confidence persona_ that, apparently, fluttered around like his personal fairy  godmother making him magically less of a pansy. And then, when she finally started to get on her nerves, Vriska confronted this girl and told her to shove off and mind her own business, but it turned out she was actually kind of _fun_ , like, to mess with. She was witty enough to outsmart her attempts to screw over her brain. She was a _challenge._

Kanaya finally backed off a bit Freshman year, but at that point she remembered not even paying attention to Tavros. She knew he got a couple piercings that year, a septum ring and a ring in the side of his lip, a barbell in his ear. His hair also changed from a little long and curly to this fluffy mohawk, and he started carrying around this bright orange backpack. Near the very end of the year he got some robotic legs and was finally able to walk again, but she kept out of his way even then, and the times they met to play tabletop Dungeons and Dragons at Aradia’s house, she barely said a word about “u-uh.. Rufioh the Brave!”

 

The Summer before Sophomore year, Kanaya became even more enticing. She cut off all her long, silky hair into this short half bob, half pixie cut. She started to wear a little makeup, and her fashion taste grew with her income from her first job. They talked regularly then on Pesterchum, not even about Tavros. That was until that school year, when he started homeschool so he could participate in physical therapy for his legs. She couldn’t exactly remember why, but she decided to start bothering him again after that, she guessed not seeing him at School made him more interesting, and the whole thing started all over again.

 

 

 Kanaya was mad at her, she knew it. She had asked for her to make this dress and then she had maybe kinda come on to Tavros at a house party, it all became a huge mess really fast. Even though she had already had her piece over Pesterchum, she tried to give her more shit about it in homeroom, throwing notes at her over and over again. She was trying not to pay any attention to her until one of the papers hit her in the head and she gave up, throwing it in the trash. Maybe Kanaya would get the message now.

 

She had sat with Nepeta, Tavros, and Aradia at lunch. Their D&D set up had gotten kinda mixed up after Terezi had left, but hopefully Nepeta would be joining them in her place. She wasn’t really looking forward to endless subjection to her ridiculous catgirl character, which she also used online. The last time Nepeta had joined her party for a quest, she hadn’t wanted to hurt the razorcats they were fighting (although usually she was a merciless fighter), and had fucked everything up. Maybe they would meet someone else, so they could add some voice of reason to their group. It wasn’t impossible.

 

In fact, an old friend, Eridan Ampora, had been telling her on DDO that he would be coming back to the country. If that meant Salem, wouldn’t he be back at school soon? Maybe he’d bust out one of his old miniatures and play Dualscar for them. She hadn’t seen him yet, but then again, she’d been avoiding everyone, hadn’t she?

 

She glanced at the clock on her phone, and with only twenty minutes left of class, it seemed it was time to go back. She put out the cig with her shoe and with the toe of her boots, pushed it into the drain on the floor. She hated this place, but it wasn’t enough to make her want to burn it down.

 

She reapplied a thick layer of blue to her lips and proceeded to drag herself back to class.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey.” the cool kid greeted, coolly, leaning against his sisters neighboring locker like the coolest motherfucker to ever exist. That’s what he liked to think anyway, but he probably just looked like a dumbass. “Where were you at lunch.”

“The library.” The gothically dressed girl responded plainly, gathering books from her locker. It was the last period, and people were slowly disappearing from the halls. “I presume that you were elsewhere, with your ‘cool’ friends, doing ‘cool people’ things.”

 

Dave shrugged. “It was pretty sick, we vandalized a teachers car, we stole some ice cream from some little kids, smoked weed in a bouncy house. Everyone wishes they could be us.”

 

“That’s nice.” She responded, her black stained lips curling into a smile, and shut her locker. “But I can tell you didn’t have any fun, bouncy house weed aside.”

 

“Yeah? Well guess what, I’m not talking to you about it.” Dave said. “I won’t be a subject of your sick mind games, Lalonde. You’re not going to psychoanalyze me in the middle of a school hallway. I’ve caught on to your bullshit.”

 

“Do what you like David, I know you’ll come crawling to me at some point.I just want you to know that my office is always open.” And with that, she began to sashay away.

 

“My names not David, _Rosalyn_ , and you know it.” He managed to add.

 

“Maybe I just know more than you think.” She called back, and she was gone.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Within a couple minutes he had climbed the stairs to the second floor of the school and slunk into eighth period Physics, his awesome ass red East High High School Musical backpack hanging off of one shoulder. That shit was actually super small and terrible at holding actual textbooks, but his bro had gotten it for him for his birthday last year, and he just couldn’t bring himself to send it off to Goodwill, just like all the other crap Bro gave him. Most recently, an animatronic peanut doll that, even when shoved into the deep dark abyss of his closet, somehow always managed to be perched on the shelf opposite his bed, so it could watch him while he slept. More than he wanted to admit, it scared the living dicks out of him, which seemed to amuse Rose.

 

As per usual, the teacher had them lined up along the wall to be seated. He slumped against one of the 47 Bill Nye posters in the classroom, yes, he’d counted. Freshman year plant cells had just been so boring….Ever since then he’d always thought that the goofy old Science teacher was pretty cool, even though she did seem to have a passionate love for Bill Nye rather than ironic. Maybe that made it sort of..cooler. Anyhow, he happened to be one of her favorite students, exactly because of his appreciation of her weird PBS TV Star fetish. She had a couple Mr. Rogers posters too.

 

Glancing around the room, his eyes came to a sudden halt behind his shades as he noticed John Egbert, just around the corner, snickering at some probably super lame joke that it seemed Sollux had just told him. God, he wanted to talk to him, but even though he and Sollux were pretty close bros, John still probably wasn’t ready to say anything. It was funny, he seemed to be in contact with pretty much every other person on the face of the Earth besides him. Yeah, during the Summer he had gone over there a couple times with Feferi because she was friends with Jane, but if anything, it had just been super awkward. Chilling out on the Egbert household couch and talking to Johns Dad and he just glared at them from the top of the stairs.

 

_Chill out, he probably won’t even notice you if you keep your mouth shut. Silent and edgy, you can totally work with that._

 

One by one, the cluster of students began to diminish as the teacher called them to their labs, assigning them to partners. Sollux was pulled away eventually to sit with some weirdo with a top hat and some kind of steampunk vibe going on, judging by his coat and his ridiculously old glasses. He almost felt sorry for him, until he became preoccupied with his own self-pity, as his name was called alongside John’s to sit together.

 

He swaggered off to his stool, dropping his backpack on the tile floor beside him and tilting his head to the side, trying to look more carefree than he felt. Obviously John must’ve noticed, but he was busy taking out his lab journal and writing his name neatly on the cover.  

 

“Alright, guys. Today you’re going to get started on your vocabulary for this unit with your partners. The books are on the back shelf, and you’re going to need to make flashcards or some other kind of study sheet with the word and definition. You can draw a picture too, if it’ll help you.” The teacher got straight down to business, she probably knew how tired everyone was of the ‘this year is going to be great!’ spiel.

 

John sighed and silently came to some agreement with Dave that he would get the book, then brought it back to the table, pulling out some blue flashcards and a highlighter.

 

“Bro, let me at some of those, I wanna draw the pictures.” He somehow got himself to say, picking up his pencil.

 

“She said we didn’t have to draw pictures.” John reasoned, seeming irritated with his friendly nature.

 

“Aw, but you _know_ I’m the king of stupid drawings, Egderp, I run a webcomic, in case you’ve forgotten. And you also know that neither of us remember definitions for shit. Lemme do it.” He argued, smirking.

 

The tanner boy, clad in a blue sweatshirt, huffed in defeat, handing over the cards.

“The first word is amplitude.” He grumbled, and Dave got busy drawing.

  
  


There was a long moment of silence, save for Dave’s pencil scratching away at the cardstock, and finally, John broke it.

 

“Why are you such a dick?” He asked under his breath, clearly pissed but not willing to insult him loud enough for the teacher to potentially hear.

 

There it was, his only chance to redeem himself. _Better make this good, Strider._

He shrugged. “You are what you eat.”

 

_Nice job, idiot._

 

He watched Johns face struggle to keep a smile at bay, forming his mouth back into a frown of disdain.

 

“I’m being serious, okay? You haven’t talked to like, any of us all Summer, except Rose because you live with her. But we never hang out because of all your dumb friends. Even Jade hangs out with you guys but she still has time for the rest of us. And _stop_ coming to my house and eating all my fruit gushers!”

 

He turned away, crossing his arms, as Dave moved onto drawing “Wavelength”.

  
  


“Hey, I’ve just been over there with the fish girl and your Dad always seems to think I’m too thin for a growin’ boy. Do you want me to break your old mans’ heart?”

 

“No, I want to know why you’ve been avoiding everyone!” He hissed.

 

Dave sighed, focusing on his drawing.

 

“You said it yourself, I haven’t been avoiding everyone. I hang out with Jade, and Rose is basically my sister. Figure it out, Johnny Boy.”

 

He mulled it over for a moment, watching Dave.

 

“You’re avoiding me?”

 

The Strider rolled his eyes behind his shades, John couldn’t tell.

 

“I just can’t talk to you about it right now.” He sighed.

They continued on in silence for the rest of the period. Even so, the air felt lighter around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been really busy this Summer, guys. I know this fanfic is moving at a slow pace, but I promise it will pick up in the next chapter, okay? Thanks once again for reading, love!
> 
> -☁️soph☁️

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read this first installment of Paperweighted. There will be another chapter on the way, as I am trying to upload a chapter on a weekly basis (what with school and all it's hard for me to write others faster than that.) Let me know what you think! I'm a little rusty on fanfiction, but I think I'm gonna bring it back to town pretty easily! :3 I have a lot of ideas for storyline already, but I would love to hear any suggestions you have.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at paperskythewry.tumblr.com
> 
> Thanks Again!
> 
> \- ☁soph☁


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